


The Low Hanging Stone

by awerewolf



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-20
Updated: 2015-02-20
Packaged: 2018-03-13 22:41:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3398900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awerewolf/pseuds/awerewolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Varric asks for a story about Fen'Harel that is not scary or sad, so Noll tells a story that Solas has never heard before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Low Hanging Stone

“So Fen’Harel had killed the beast with a slow arrow that he had never noticed.”

“I’ve heard this one before, Jingles.” Varric told her with an exaggerated yawn.

“Jingles?” Noll asked.

“You know because you…” He pointed to the homemade jewelry that adorned her wrists and ankles. “You jingle when you walk.” She made a face. “I’m still working on it. Anyway, Daisy already told me plenty of stories about this Dread Wolf. They were all scary or sad somehow, so unless you’ve got something new, then move on to something else.”

“Well, there one story that I’ve always found a bit funny.”

Solas, who was following nearby, couldn’t help but join the conversation. “I wasn’t aware that there were funny stories about Fen’Harel.”

“We was a trickster,” Noll replied. “Tricks are sometimes funny.”

“Let’s hear it then.” Varric said, and she began.

“One day, Fen’Harel was travelling about the forest in his form of a wolf, when he noticed an old man going about his day. Curious, he followed. The old man lived alone in a home that looked very old. Every day, he went about the same tasks and even ate the same meals. Nothing he did was different.

His children came to visit him, and begged him to come live in the nearby village with him, but he refused. His children left, disappointed, and the man went back about his day.

Fen’Harel, being so clever, noticed the man’s firm resistance to change and decided to test him. He cast a spell upon the man’s house, and a stone moved low in the doorframe. The next day, when the old man got up to go fishing, he knocked his head upon the low hanging stone. He glanced at it for only a moment before going back to his day. When he came back in the afternoon, he knocked his head again, but once more did nothing.

For a whole week, the man knocked his head upon the stone each time he went through the door. He was so set in his ways that not only did he refuse to fix the low hanging stone, but he also refused to bow to it.

His children returned to visit him once more, and immediately noticed the stone. They offered to fix it for him, and their father only shrugged. Alas, Fen’Harel had set his spell so that the stone could only be fixed if the man himself set to fix it, or if he asked someone for help. So each time the man’s children tried to fix it, the stone simply shifted back into place.

A few days later, the old man was attending to his business in the forest and noticed bandits roaming nearby. Frightened, he ran to hide in his home but knocked his head so hard against the stone that he fell unconscious in the doorway. He awoke sometime later to find all the valuables in his house had been taken. He cursed the low hanging stone but again, did nothing about it.

It was then that Fen’Harel appeared to him, in the form of a young man.

‘Was it not the bandits who took your things, not the low hanging stone?’ Fen’Harel asked as he came out from his hiding.

The old man replied, ‘They would have stolen nothing if it weren’t for this cursed stone.’

‘Why not do something about the stone, then?’ Fen’Harel asked.

‘I have no time for fixing this. I have more important things to do.’ The old man told him, and Fen’Harel knew that this was a lie.

‘Why not get someone to fix it for you, then?’

‘They would want something in return, and I am not going to give up anything I own for this.’

Seeing that the old man was still unwilling to change, Fen’Harel left him alone and went back to watching from the shadows. Day after day, the man continued to knock his head upon the doorframe until Fen’Harel grew tired of watching him and left.

It’s said that this continued until the man’s death, and now the house is but a ruin hidden somewhere in the forest. Still, Fen’Harel’s spell holds, waiting for someone to fix the low hanging stone.”

Noll finished her story, and Varric looked like he was about to say something before Solas burst into loud laughter.

“I have never heard that one before!” Solas admitted, snorting with laughter once again.

Varric rolled his eyes. “Something Chuckles hasn’t heard before? That’s a shock.”

Indeed, the story was only a legend, but Solas couldn’t help but laugh for the only accurate portrayal of the Dread Wolf he’d heard in many years.


End file.
